Troublesome crane shunted out of the way

Terry Hutson
A DAMAGED Noell container crane, known by the number 511, was painstakingly moved about 57m last week at Durban’s Container Terminal to prevent it from further impeding work on berth 205 at the busy terminal.
Moving a machine 57m may not sound noteworthy until you realise that No 511 weighs in at a whopping 880 tonnes and stands 65m high and is suspended on four rail mounted legs. On top of that it was on the wrong side of a sister crane of similar dimensions.
The problem followed a freak accident in which 511 was derailed, resulting in structural damage that required the attention of specialist technicians from the German manufacturer.
“Since crane 511 was damaged it has been hampering the flexible operation of the cranes on either side of it because the cranes can’t move past each other. We therefore decided to move it to another site for repair,” explained Joe Madlala, DCT’s acting business unit manager.
The technicians, together with local partners CPS Projects, utilised special equipment brought out from Germany to carefully jack the massive structure up to knee-high level and place it onto well-oiled skids. The machine was then floated on a thin layer of nitrogen gas and slowly inched away from the quayside by means of long hydraulic rams.
Madlala said that shipping lines were kept informed and had taken appropriate action to keep delays to a minimum during the week-long process.
“We are now able to move the serviceable cranes freely along the quay - which was not the same while the damaged crane was trapped between working cranes.”